Summary: Exercises aimed at increasing agreeableness were linked to reductions in Dark Triad traits. Yet people who scored high on those dark traits were less likely to want to reduce them, even though many expressed interest in becoming more agreeable.
Source: Southern Methodist University
Want to be less selfish, manipulative, or impulsive?
A recent study from Southern Methodist University suggests that deliberate exercises to boost agreeableness—qualities such as modesty, kindness, consideration, and helpfulness—can also reduce the so-called Dark Triad traits: Machiavellianism, narcissism, and psychopathy. The research, led by SMU psychology professor Nathan Hudson and published in the Journal of Personality, tested whether personality-change interventions aimed at the Big Five traits might produce spillover effects on darker personality features.
Hudson and his colleagues gave participants practical, week-by-week tasks designed to promote agreeableness—examples included donating money they otherwise would have spent on themselves and engaging strangers in conversation by asking about them. After four months, participants who completed agreeableness-targeted activities showed measurable reductions in Machiavellianism, narcissism, and psychopathy.
The finding is notable because many people who scored higher on Dark Triad measures did not want to lower those traits—in fact, many expressed a desire to increase Machiavellian tendencies. Nevertheless, these same individuals often reported wanting to become more agreeable. That combination suggests a complex self-view: people may value traits that help them achieve personal goals, such as manipulation or grandiosity, while simultaneously appreciating the social benefits of being seen as kind and considerate.
Hudson proposes that those with higher Dark Triad scores may experience a disconnect between self-perception and behavior. “No one wants to see themselves as bad or evil,” he notes, and so people may justify actions that harm others while still wanting to be perceived as decent or effective in social interactions. In this context, interventions that emphasize agreeableness could be more acceptable to participants than interventions explicitly framed to reduce dark traits.
The Dark Triad has been linked to a range of harmful behaviors and outcomes, including increased likelihood of academic cheating, higher involvement in criminal activity, greater incidence of intimate partner violence, and negative workplace effects such as reduced productivity and damaged professional relationships. Therefore, finding approachable ways to lower these traits carries potential benefit for both individuals and communities.
“Faking it until you make it”
Hudson’s work builds on prior research showing that people can intentionally change aspects of their personality by adopting new behaviors. He and others developed practical challenge lists to help people nudge their standing on the Big Five traits—extraversion, agreeableness, openness, conscientiousness, and emotional stability—by practicing small, repeated actions. This study tested whether such interventions produce intended changes in the target trait and whether they also affect Dark Triad traits as a secondary outcome.
The study followed 467 students (average age 20) over 16 weekly assessment waves. Participants first rated their desire to change each of the Big Five traits as well as the Dark Triad traits. They then received tasks aligned with the personality changes they wanted and reported their levels on those traits each week for approximately four months.
The study used the 27-item Short Dark Triad scale to estimate participants’ levels of Machiavellianism, narcissism, and psychopathy rather than clinical diagnoses. Most participants did not wish to reduce their dark traits; many wanted to preserve or even increase traits like Machiavellianism, which involves manipulation, exploitation of others, cynical disregard for morality, and a focus on self-interest. Narcissism, associated with grandiosity and low empathy, and psychopathy, associated with impulsivity, remorselessness, and antisocial behavior, were also generally not seen by participants as traits they wanted to lower.
Despite this, the interventions aimed at increasing agreeableness produced declines across all three Dark Triad traits beyond what could be explained by changes in agreeableness alone. In other words, small, actionable practices intended to cultivate kindness and consideration had broader effects on reducing manipulative, exploitative, and callous tendencies.
Hudson argues that agreeableness-focused interventions may be effective and acceptable routes to reduce dark personality traits because participants are more likely to cooperate with efforts framed as improvements in prosocial qualities. This approach could inform both future research and therapeutic strategies that seek to lower harmful personality tendencies without confronting individuals with stigmatizing labels.
About this Dark Triad research news
Author: Monifa Thomas-Nguyen
Source: Southern Methodist University
Contact: Monifa Thomas-Nguyen – Southern Methodist University
Image: The image is in the public domain
Original Research: Closed access. “Lighten the darkness: Personality interventions targeting agreeableness also reduce participants’ level of the dark triad” by Nathan W. Hudson. Journal of Personality
Abstract
Lighten the darkness: Personality interventions targeting agreeableness also reduce participants’ level of the dark triad
Objective
This study extended prior work on intentional personality change in three ways: it assessed whether people want to change levels of the Dark Triad traits (Machiavellianism, narcissism, psychopathy); it tested whether desires to change predict actual trait shifts across roughly four months; and it evaluated whether an intervention designed to change the Big Five traits could also influence the Dark Triad.
Method
The research used a 16-wave, weekly, intensive longitudinal design with 467 participants to monitor weekly changes and to deliver targeted personality-change tasks.
Results
Overall, participants were unlikely to want to change their Dark Triad levels. Nevertheless, individual differences in desire to change did predict actual shifts over four months. Crucially, interventions that targeted agreeableness produced reductions in all three Dark Triad traits.
Conclusions
The findings indicate that small, behavior-focused steps to become more agreeable can also reduce Machiavellianism, narcissism, and psychopathy. Such interventions may be both effective and more acceptable to participants than approaches that directly target “dark” traits, and they hold promise for future research and clinical applications.